In a powder coating paint operation, charged particles of solid paint are deposited on an oppositely charged surface and the surface is heated to fuse the paint to the surface. This operation is well known and provides a high quality paint finish to a product without the use of volatile solvents.
While the finish on a powder coated product is desirable, the painting operation used in the application of powder coating paints has some drawbacks. The paint particles not deposited and retained on the product are difficult to control and recover, with the particles tending to settle on and coat the objects and floor of the paint booth. While some of this paint can be recovered and reused, much of it is sent to a landfill. This results in a substantial amount of paint loss with powder coating paint operations.
It is therefore desirable to develop new methods of recycling power coating paint.